Greater Rochester Enterprise President Mark Peterson was pleased to hear Gov. Andrew Cuomo announce $3 million in funding Thursday for a clean-energy project that could create 600 jobs at Eastman Business Park over the next several years.

But he's still disappointed that other local economic development proposals remain overlooked.

"I don't think it's enough, but it's a start," Peterson said.

Speaking in the auditorium of Kodak's Research Lab, Cuomo revealed the funding for the $25 million Bioscience Manufacturing Center, where a group of companies will use plant material to make sugars, which will then be made into fuel and other products.

The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council had listed the project as its top priority when it submitted its funding requests to the state last year. But the project received no funding in December, and the $59.8 million in funding the council did receive — a figure far smaller than several other councils in the state — led to grumbling among some civic leaders that the Rochester area was not getting its fair share of state resources.

Prior to making the announcement, Cuomo highlighted a few of the state-supported projects in Rochester, including the Interstate 390 reconstruction, and called upstate New York "the priority area in the state."

While acknowledging the importance of the road project, Peterson, who attended the announcement Thursday, remained critical of the level of state support local economic development projects have received.

“Our priority for the year is the same thing our priority has been for the last three years: It's about jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo

"I continue to be concerned about the fact that there's rhetoric around being supportive of upstate and yet it appears there's far more support being provided to upstate communities in Syracuse and Buffalo, and even Utica, than there is in the Greater Rochester Finger Lakes region," Peterson said.

He singled out two proposals that he was especially disappointed did not receive funding in December. The first is the Finger Lakes Business Accelerator Cooperative, which was seeking $3 million in funding. The second is the Science Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP), in Genesee County, which was asking for $500,000.

"We are at a critical juncture with that (STAMP) project. We continue to be in conversations with the governor's office and our Senate and Assembly leaders about how we might find resources to keep that project moving forward. I'm still hopeful that may happen," he said.

The 60,000-square-foot Bioscience Center will be built on a vacant parcel on the east side of the Eastman Business Park in Rochester, said Eastman Business Park Director Mike Alt. The plant will have the capacity to make up to 30,000 tons of sugars annually.

The center, expected to be up and running in early 2016, will be owned and operated by EBP EcoTech Park Operating Corp., a consortium of companies providing the majority of funding for the project. Its president is Stephen Healey. Other companies will have access to the resources at the center.

"They will bring in their materials, they'll pay a fee for the facility and then they'll take their materials out once they've been processed," Alt said.

The facility itself would employ about 50 workers. Companies using the center and establishing their own plants nearby will create about 600 more jobs. Those workers will include scientists, engineers, technicians, administrators and skilled workers.

"It's an industry that's growing," said Michael Haselkorn, professor of sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology. "This technology is being used all over the country. Any ethanol plant that makes ethanol uses this technology and a whole bunch of universities all around the country are doing research into this," Haselkorn said.

Just about anything made with petroleum can be made with the sugars. But using sugars is more environmentally friendly because the plant material is renewable and non-polluting.

"They can use wood, they could use a plant material, or they can use waste," he said.

Sweetwater Energy, headquartered on Lee Road, for example, has partnered with several ethanol producers to provide sugars made from plant fiber to make fuel that is blended with the corn ethanol. And Sweetwater also is in involved in a joint venture with the British company Naturally Scientific to make sugars from industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Both plan to build facilities in Eastman Business Park, but Sweetwater President Jack Baron said his company is not involved in the new project.

The exact source of the funding announced by Cuomo was not clear Thursday.

"What we know at this time is the funding will come in the form of a capital assistance grant," said Sean Hart, communications director for Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit.

Cuomo also spent much time Thursday discussing his proposed 2014-2015 state budget.

"Our priority for the year is the same thing our priority has been for the last three years: It's about jobs, jobs, jobs," he said.

His budget proposes cutting the corporate income tax rate for upstate manufacturers to zero, in hopes of encouraging more manufacturing work upstate. He highlighted the Startup Zone program, which creates geographical areas that are 100 percent tax free for 10 years, noting that 59 of the 64 zones are upstate.

Cuomo said that New York is so heavily taxed in part because there are 10,500 local government entities throughout the state, including 624 in Monroe County alone. This includes larger entities such as towns and school districts, as well as smaller taxing entities, such as fire districts and drainage districts.

"Do you really need 102 different drainage districts? Do you really care what drainage district you live in? Do you even know what drainage district you live in?" he quipped.

Cuomo also mentioned a two-year property tax freeze for homeowners who live in jurisdictions that are staying below the tax cap. To maintain the freeze, local governments must stay below the tax cap for two years, and then cut a total of 3 percent in spending over the following three years.